The Watertown Times reported yesterday that Neil T. Habig, a developer for Hudson Energy, said, “We’ve had multiple discussions with other developers that have expressed interest. We could decide to partner with someone or to sell it to them in a year.” One possible cause for Hudson’s rethinking of the Galloo project is lack of support for a PILOT agreement by the Jefferson County legislature. William M. Moore, another principal of Hudson Energy, commented on how important the PILOT was to Hudson’s Galloo Island plans, “No project will be built without a PILOT.”
There is another monkey wrench that could gum up the works and plans for Hudson Energy and add to the incentive to sell their project. In 2009 a federal judge in Maryland halted the expansion of the Beech Ridge Wind Project because it threatened to harm, wound or kill Indiana Bats. In studies conducted by Dr. D. Scott Reynolds of North East Ecological Services for Hudson Energy, Indiana Bats were tentatively identified on Galloo Island this summer (see Exec. Summary below).
Remarkably, results of summer Galloo avian studies were provided at the Henderson meet and greet session, but there was no mention of the Galloo Island Bat Survey, nor was the avian studies representative at the session aware of any bat survey conducted on Galloo this summer. Why the mystery? Why the choice to exclude what could be a serious impediment to Hudson’s plans for Galloo Island?
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July 5, 2015 Galloo Island Bat Survey
North East Ecological Services
Bat Survey of the Galloo Island Wind Project Site
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (author: Dr. D. Scott Reynolds)
North East Ecological Services(‘NEES’) conducted an acoustic survey at the Galloo Island Wind Project Site from 16 June – 19 June, 2015 to document the presence of potential federally endangered species, specifically the northern myotis (Myotis septentrionalis) and Indiana myotis (Myotis sodalis). NEES utilized U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service protocols to sample for the bats and analyzed all data using federally approved identification software.
In total, NEES sampled at 42 locations within the Project Site. We visually confirmed the presence of little brown myotis (M. lucifugus) at Galloo sland; this was the dominant species on the island during our survey in 2008. The automated species identification software found tentative evidence for both Indiana myotis and northern myotis at the Project Site, but most of this evidence was based on a single call sequence from multiple sampling sites. According to the previous iteration of the US Fish & Wildlife Service Guidelines (USFWS, 2013) and the developer of the EchoClass analysis software (Britzke, 2015), a single call sequences at a site is not allowed to determine presence ofa species. Eliminating these sites (those based on a single call sequence), the current data suggests only three potential sites for further investigation, one of which is a known little brown myotis maternity site.
NEES recommends that Hudson Energy provide the US Fish & Wildlife Service with a copy of this report and re-establish informal consultation to determine the next step. Given the time constraints of this field season, I would recommend a conference call to determine whether additional work is necessary and to agree on a scope of work that will meet the needs of all parties.
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Link here to read the bat Survey
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